Staged Performance
by BloodiedReaper
Summary: Eren joins his school's drama club due to the persistent begging of his best friend Armin. When at the first meeting, he sees a boy with black hair and strange silvery eyes. He makes it his mission to find out more about this weird kid, and does not expect what he finds out


Hey everyone! I just thought I should put a little not here that I am not abandoning my other stories, I just didn't have internet and now I have writer's block with Grell. And I actually drew a shitty cover picture be proud of me guys! :) please review, I wanna know if I should continue this or not.

* * *

It wasn't his first day at high school. It wasn't even his first time seeing the older boy. But, it was the first time he talked to the older boy, and it was all Armin's fault.

* * *

Eren Jaeger is a sophomore at Maria High School. It was winter and halfway into the school year when his best friend Armin approached him and his adopted sister Mikasa about joining the winter musical.

"Eren! Please? I'm the assistant director, but we don't have enough people to do the show we want to!" He begged after school on their way home.

"Armin."

"Mikasa, please make him. I've heard him sing and he was good! A lot better than some people who auditioned," his eyes widened and he pouted at Mikasa.

"Are you trying to show off your skills as director for someone, Armin?" she asked quietly.

He blushed a faint red and shook his head. "Of course not! What are you talking about?" his eyes flickered to the ground and then back to Eren. "Please? You know, Marco got Jean to join. But he's not the best singer. However, he already is getting a lot of attention for his acting skills and the girls seem to pay more attention to him already. Just imagine if he gets a lead role."

"Armin, I know what you're trying to do. But no, I will not be in the musical. I'll help out with sets, how about that?" Eren smiled apologetically and shrugged. "It's just not my thing."

The blond sighed and bowed his head. "Fine, thanks for helping, though!"

Mikasa glared at Eren over the shorter boy's head and brought up a hand to smack him. He yelped and rubbed the back of his head and muttered under his breath until they got to their apartment building.

"We have drama tomorrow at ten," Armin said as they waved goodbye. "The auditions haven't happened yet, but you still need to show up, okay?"

Mikasa nodded and Eren groaned. "Tomorrow's a Saturday! I'm supposed to sleep in!"

"If you went to bed earlier than two in the morning every night, you wouldn't need to sleep until four in the afternoon," Mikasa said. "We'll be there, Armin."

"See ya!" he yelled as he walked down the road to his house.

* * *

Inside, Eren smiled as he heard his mother singing softly in the kitchen. Mikasa followed him silently as he ran into the other room. "Hi, Mom!" he shouted, throwing his bag onto the kitchen table and sitting down.

"Hello sweeties," Carla Jaeger said with a laugh. "Why are you so excited, Eren?"

Mikasa sat down and smiled at her adoptive mother. "He's excited to work on the musical with Armin."

Carla's eyes lit up and she dropped the potato she was peeling. "Really? Are you doing it too, Mikasa?"

She nodded and Eren frowned. "We don't know what we're doing yet, but I'm not performing. I'm working on the set."

"That's perfect for you, Eren. But I wish you would go onstage, your voice is wonderful. Mikasa are you doing set design, too?"

"I am going to ask Armin if I can be stage manager."

Their mom laughed and tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear. Then the front door opened and fear flooded her face. "Eren, don't tell your father," she whispered before Grisha Jaeger entered the kitchen.

"Eren, get your bag off the table." Was his way of greeting.

"He- hello, dear!" Carla smiled and kissed him on the cheek, pushing his circular glasses higher on his nose. "How was your day?"

"It would have been better if dinner was already finished."

"I'm sorry, Eren and Mikasa were telling me about a test in school, I will go finish dinner now."

Eren stared at the tabletop, tracing designs on the old, scratched wood with one finger. He ignored his father with all of his might and felt nervous when he realized Mikasa was staring intently at him. Pretending he hadn't noticed, he imagined the picture he was drawing with his finger. If they were doing a play with a castle, he'll love to paint it. This castle had a dragon guarding a beautiful woman with brown hair, and the dragon was wearing circular glasses and bared its fangs at Eren as he tried to draw a staircase for the woman to escape from the tower with.

"Eren. What are you doing?" His father's harsh voice sent a rush of anger through him.

"Nothing," he muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Grisha leaned down and put his face near his son's, the stench of cigarettes thick on his breath and in his clothes.

"Nothing, sir," Eren said loudly. "If you'll excuse me, I need to work on homework."

"Dinner," Carla said. "You haven't eaten yet."

"I'm not hungry."

He stood up and walked to his room, shutting and locking the door behind him. He knelt on the floor and dropped his bag in front of him. If only his father wasn't a pretentious dick. If only Grisha was more like Carla and accepted Eren's talent for art. But according to his father, drawing wasn't meant for real men. He was told when he was eleven that drawing made men weak and stupid. When Eren had run to his mother in tears, saying that he just wanted to make pictures to make other people happy, his mother did the one thing to defy his father that she had ever done. She brought him to the art store when his father was "at work" and bought him paint and colored pencils and drawing pads. Mikasa helped him decide on what colors he should get, and helps him hide his supplies in her room if Grisha goes and searches their rooms like he does when he gets drunk sometimes.

Sometimes he just wants to leave this house, but he knows he can't abandon his mom and Mikasa like that. He can only hope that when he graduates in two years, he can convince his mom to leave Grisha and be happy again.

* * *

The next day on the way to drama club, Eren yawned his way through the walk to pick up Armin. His sister rolled her eyes at him and tugged him along faster.

"Eren, Mikasa! You came!" Armin smiled when he opened his door to his two friends. "You're gonna love it, I promise!"

"Of course we did, you dork," Eren laughed and punched Armin's shoulder. "Now, so I don't look like an idiot, you're going to tell us who is who when we get there."

He nodded enthusiastically and hugged Eren and Mikasa tightly. "I think you'll really like most of them. They aren't all like Jean."

When they arrived in the large auditorium of the high school a few minutes later, Eren was disappointed to see that there were far more people than he originally thought. He doubted he would ever be able to remember all their names.

A few of their fellow sophomores approached Armin to say hello when he walked in and they stared curiously at Eren and Mikasa when they followed. Eren's friend lead them down to the stage, where the majority of the students gathered around a tall, stern-looking boy with blond hair. "That's Erwin," Armin hissed in Eren's ear, saying the name of a popular, talented senior who was well-known for directing the plays and musicals put on by the school's drama department.

"Welcome, everyone," he said. "It's nice to see e everyone again. Armin, are those your friends that you told me about?"

"Y- yeah. This is Eren and Mikasa."

"Nice of you two to join us,"Erwin greeted them with a slight smile. "Now for this year's production, I asked Armin help me pick one out since he is going to be the assistant director." Erwin paused to allow for the loud applause for the younger student. "He chose Pippin, and I agreed so auditions will be next Friday evening. For today we will be-"

A door on the side of the stage slammed open, and a small, dark figure walked a cross the stage to sit down on the edge next to Erwin. He sighed and stared expectantly at the other boy until he continued.

"Today we will be teaching a few helpful audition things and begin work on deciding who will do set work and stage manager and other things that do not include the cast. Now, an audition.."

Eren began to space out when the director mentioned auditions. Knowing that they would need castle sets made his mind whirl as he pictured them in his mind. He should have known Armin was going to pick this one, he had been rambling about it all week, telling Eren every little detail about the plot. Honestly, he could understand Pippin's desire to help people and bring about change, even if he did it in a bad way that eventually lead to him bring normal. If he ever got the chance to change how the world was run, Eren would definitely want to do all he can.

While spacing, he caught the eye if the dark haired boy who walked in late. He was staring at Erwin with intensity, making Eren mildly uncomfortable for watching such an intimate-feeling look. At the back of his mind he wondered if this boy and Erwin were involved or if the kid was just really attentive. In the front of his mind, however, Eren was just thinking about who this kid was. He was short, but looked older thwn Eren and his friends. Even after being here for a year and a half, he still couldn't recognize the majority of the upperclassmen and it kind of embarrassed him enough to be too scared to ask Armin, who was sure to know just who this short boy was.

At that point, silver eyes locked on his, and Eren jumped slightly, looking away and focusing completely on Erwin as he finished his speech about auditions and continued with talking about the importance of stage hands and a stage manager. He then went on to ask for any nominations for stage director for him to choose from. Armin's hand shot up and Mikasa blushed when he said her name, pulling her red scarf up to hide her nose and mouth.

"Ok, anyone else?" Erwin allowed a few more names to be called and then he smiled. "Okay everyone, I think that's everything. See you all next Friday."

With that, everyone began to file out, Armin and Mikasa pulling Eren along as he looked behind him for the boy with those strange silver eyes.


End file.
